Community Promotion & Tourism

Village Hall Village of Lombard 255 East Wilson Ave. Lombard, IL 60148 villageoflombard.org Minutes Community Promotion & Tourism Trustee Mike Fugiel, Chairperson, Trustee Bill Johnston, Alternate Chairperson, Jill Payne, Marguerite Micken, Joe Orsolini, Lori Solyom, Nancy Schukat and Phil Dahm Ex-Officio Members: Yvonne Invergo - Lombard Chamber of Commerce; Beth Marchetti - DuPage Convention & Visitors' Bureau; Yorktown Merchants' Association - Todd Hiepler; Mary Eckhoff - Embassy Suites; Brian Flood - Extended Stay Deluxe; Randy Kline - Stay Inn; Nilesh Pandey - Hyatt Place; Karen Borris - Marriott Fairfield Inn; Homestead Village; Frank Balisteri - Comfort Suites; Cynthia Ivey - Marriott Residence Inn; Josh Dieker - Towne Place Suites; Mike Feigenbaum - The Westin Hotel Tuesday, January 12, 2016 7:00 PM Community Room 1.0 Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance The meeting was called to order at 7:03 p.m. by Chairperson Mike Fugiel. Yvonne Invergo of the Lombard Chamber of Commerce, led the committee in the Pledge of Allegiance. 2.0 Roll Call Present 5 - Mike Fugiel, Marguerite Micken, Jill Payne, Lori Solyom, and Nancy Schukat Absent 2 - Joe Orsolini, and Phil Dahm Also present: Yvonne Invergo and Whitney Cimaglia, Lombard Chamber of Commerce, Sue Horner and Nancy Spartz, Lombard Junior Women’s League, Ellyn Murphy, Lilac Festival Parade Committee, Beth Marchetti, DuPage Convention and Visitors Bureau and Committee Liaison, Nicole Aranas. 3.0 Public Participation None. Village of Lombard Page 1 Community Promotion & Tourism Minutes January 12, 2016 4.0 Approval of Minutes A motion was made to approve the minutes of the September 8, 2015, committee meeting, by Marguerite Micken, seconded by Lori Solyom. The motion was approved by a unanimous vote. 5.0 New Business 160003 Local Tourism Grant Application 2016 - Lilac Princess Program Grant request from Lombard Junior Women's Club in the amount of $6,945, from Hotel/Motel funds, for expenses supporting the selection of the Lilac Queen and her Court. The grant supports expenses associated with the participation of the Lilac Queen Court in numerous Lliac Time events and provides $1,000 scholarships to five members of the court. The process begins in February and culminates in May 2016. Sue Horner and Nancy Spartz were in attendance for the Lombard Junior Women’s League. The princess program this year has a few changes and modifications but no significant changes in the running of the program. The committee reports spending up to 400 hours on the administration of the program and some time may not even be accounted for. Committee member Lori Solyom noted that the program had a lot of area-wide publicity this year. Sue said that this year, the committee worked to obtain the metrics on overnight stays and will partner with park district and other agencies to get better metrics. The Juniors also talked to families of princesses to try to find out how many hotel stays were generated and looking to continue to partner to build upon that number. Nancy and Sue stated that they are looking into partnering with hotels to do something with the Lilac Ball, such as a brunch the morning after the ball. The program seeks to bring in people from outside of the community and the Princess Program is a great way to do that. Lori Solyom stated that she appreciated that the request was not increased over the previous year. The Juniors also did a good job in improving their grant application and metrics this year. Sue stated that their overall grant request is for more than 50% of the total project because $5,000 of the request is for the scholarship awards. They are asking for 50% of the remainder of the non-scholarship expenses. A motion was made by Nancy Schukat to approve the $6,945 grant request. The motion was seconded by Jill Payne and approved by unanimous vote. 160005 Local Tourism Grant Application 2016 - Lilac Time Art and Craft Fair Village of Lombard Page 2 Community Promotion & Tourism Minutes January 12, 2016 Grant request from the Lombard Chamber of Commerce in the amount of $3,000 from Hotel/Motel funds for the cost of support services from the Village of Lombard Public Works, Fire and Police Departments. Whitney Cimaglia and Yvonne Invergo presented the review of the grant request for the Lombard Chamber of Commerce for the Lilac Time Arts and Crafts Fair. The Chamber is requesting $3,000 in grant funds to cover costs related to Village of Lombard services from Public Works, Police and Fire for the craft fair this year. These costs have not been included in the cost of the event previously. The total cost is a little less than 50% of the event. The figures in the grant were estimated based on costs in prior years plus $300. Lori Solyom asked if the cost of music and entertainment is being increased. Whitney stated that the expenditures will depend on what kind of band that they can find. The Chamber was lucky to have found someone last year for $250. Yvonne stated that they always try to use local entertainment but we would want to be sure that they have a band in place for the late afternoon because they want to keep people engaged in the event. Committee Member Marguerite Micken stated that it is easy to get people to support advertising for this event. Lori Solyom stated that while the event is not completely targeted towards overnight stays, it is great at representing the community. Whitney stated that they have out of state crafters who might stay the night prior to the craft fair. Lori requested the Chamber try to track those stays and add them to the application. Marguerite stated that more and more people are coming to make a whole weekend out of Lilac Time instead of just coming for the parade. A motion was made by Lori Solyom, seconded by Marguerite Micken, to approve the $3000 grant request. The motion was approved by unanimous vote. 160004 Local Tourism Grant Application 2016 - Lilac Festival Parade Grant request from the Lombard Lilac Festival Parade Committee in the amount of $37,007, from Hotel/Motel funds, for costs associated with the Lilac Festival Parade to be held May 15, 2016, at Main and Wilson Streets. Ellyn Murphy, representative of the Lilac Festival Parade Committee stated that for the first time, this year they have included the costs of public services in the grant request which is why there is a large increase. Overall, taking that out, they are asking for less direct funds than last year because they did well with fundraising efforts and have big plans for two events. The first is an adults-only Easter Egg hunt, Village of Lombard Page 3 Community Promotion & Tourism Minutes January 12, 2016 hopefully taking place at the commons on March 12th, with an after party at Miller’s Ale House. They are currently working on that project. The second event is an inaugural Wine Walk, hosted by the parade committee and partially assisted by the Cellar and Famous Liquors. The event will take place on the same day as coronation. They will work with The Lombard Junior Women’s Club to coordinate this event. Committee Member Jill Payne inquired about Famous Liquors help with the parade last year. Ellyn Murphy stated that Famous was a sponsor of the parade last year and this year as well. Yvonne Invergo asked that the committee please send to the information on the event to The Chamber. Ellyn stated they want some of the same acts from last year and that they already have four applications. Lori Solyom asked about the donation amounts for personal donations and was surprised that the donations were not more. Chairperson Mike Fugiel noted that the true amount of donations was more than $4,000. Marguerite Micken inquired about whether it was difficult to do all those restaurant fundraiser events. Ellyn Murphy stated that it was very taxing and while they made a few hundred dollars at some, several events raised only a few dollars. This year they are doing only two restaurant events, Pops in Elmhurst and Rock Bottom, because Rock Bottom has been a strong supporter of the parade and their event raised the most funds. Jill Payne noted that Rock Bottom is very supportive of the community. A motion was made by Lori Solyom, seconded by Jill Payne, to approve the grant request for $17,000. The motion was approved by unanimous vote. 6.0 Old Business 150376 DuPage Convention and Visitors Bureau Pilot Grant Program Revising the recommendation on approval of Village Funds, from Hotel/Motel funds, for local participation in the DuPage CVB pilot grant program. Beth Marchetti from the DuPage Convention and Visitors Bureau came to talk about a new pilot grant program The DCVB launched their new program in November at a hotel meeting. The program was communicated to hotel partners and received a good reception. The DCVB will be going to DuPage Mayors and Manager Conference as well. Beth Marchetti stated there are competitive initiatives available in Chicago and Rosemont to poach business that we used to be able to get in DuPage County. There was a bill that came out this year for Municipal Convention Centers which fortunately applies to the Lombard Westin, but other hotel partners (e.g., Embassy Suites) do not have a program to benefit from. The proposal for consideration is a $25,000 local commitment for the program with no money immediately exchanged. Village of Lombard Page 4 Community Promotion & Tourism Minutes January 12, 2016 The DCVB will have some flexibility to award grants through the Scott Niehaus, Lombard Village Manager, and turn around to close a deal within a short time frame. In a time sensitive booking situation, if there is something that would seal the deal, the DCVB would call the Village Manager and alert him to the piece of business pending. The DCVB will track the event on their system and there would be no exchange of money until the rooms are actualized by the group coming in. The DCVB is six weeks into the new program and have had two pieces of potential Lombard business. Jill Payne stated that it helps that we have a former employee of the DCVB at the Lombard Westin who is familiar with the program. Beth stated that with the program the Village is somewhat fronting the money because we are hoping to get the money on the back end. Chairperson Mike Fugiel stated that just because we allocate the $25,000, doesn’t mean we will automatically be spending the total amount. We are just giving Village Manager, Scott Niehaus, authority to turn the programs around in a short time frame. According to Beth Marchetti, there also may be something within the program for smaller hotels if we have corporate groups that book 25 room nights, 7 times throughout the year. Beth also has promissory notes from 5 other communities in DuPage County already. Participation should take off as people learn more about the program. Jill Payne stated that she feels this program is very good. A motion was made by Jill Payne, seconded by Marguerite Micken, to recommend to the Board of Trustees for approval of participation in the DuPage Convention and Visitor’s Bureau program in the amount of $25,000. The motion was approved by unanimous vote. 7.0 Other Business 8.0 Information Only Mike Fugiel stated that pursuant to the grant program, we have held two pre-application Grant Seeker workshop sessions with new grant applicants on a few new programs. One is National Health Services. NHS is hoping to host a very high end car show on their campus. The logistics would need to be worked out and we would need to determine how it would be laid out. This event is not in competition with Cruise Nights because these vehicles are extremely high end. The president of the University is involved in this community. The Committee is also waiting to meet with Lombard Baseball, which often hosts regional tournaments which generate hotel stays, to offset their costs. Last week we met with Tri Town Y about a possible Color Run, a 3.1 mile run event with a color aspect. There is a party after the event. Village of Lombard Page 5 Community Promotion & Tourism Minutes January 12, 2016 Chairperson Mike Fugiel and Nicole Aranas brought this event to the attention of the committee to see if they felt The Tri-Town Y should continue to discuss a grant application with the committee. Jill stated that there would be some revenue in restaurants but probably would not generate overnight hotel business. Yvonne Invergo of the Lombard Chamber stated that she has seen people eat at local restaurants after runs. Lori Solyom inquired about whether people really do travel for color runs. Whitney Cimaglia stated that the company they work with does not do more than one color run in a 60 mile radius so there are not too many similar runs in the area. People from all over will be able to see the event. The Committee recommended that the group come back and see if they can meet the basic requirements of the grant. 9.0 Adjournment A motion to adjourn was made by Nancy Schukat, seconded by Jill Payne, at 7:46 p.m. The motion was approved by a unanimous vote. Village of Lombard Page 6